


with a little luck, a little bit of faith

by Doranwen



Category: The Boxcar Children - Gertrude Chandler Warner
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 13:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16934109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doranwen/pseuds/Doranwen
Summary: In a world where a plague has decimated the adult population, the Alden children make a new life for themselves.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LeBibish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeBibish/gifts).



> A big thanks to everyone who encouraged or helped with this fic in some way. You know who you are.
> 
> The title is taken from [With A Little Luck by Ilona Pal](https://ilonapal.bandcamp.com/track/with-a-little-luck-time-at-the-top-movie-soundtrack). It's a great song; take a listen!

Henry pushed open the bathroom door. "Jessie?"

His sister lifted her head up from where it had rested on her knees. "Don't—don't call me that. That was Mom's—" She trailed off and wiped a few tears from her cheeks.

He inwardly winced. "What is it, Jess?"

"We ate the last of our food at lunch. And I don't know where to get any more. They cleaned out the convenience store already. I could try next door, but…"

Henry nodded. The elderly couple who had lived there had succumbed to the sickness the day after their parents fell ill. "Someone already broke in there a few days ago, yeah." He walked over to Jess and sank down onto the tile floor facing her. "I could try to trade for food."

"Trade what? With who?" Jess's face held a good deal of skepticism.

Henry shrugged. "I don't know. Jewelry? Tools? Might be some useful stuff in the garage. Whatever Seth might go for."

Jess scowled. "Seth Baker? He's a bully."

"He's got food and we don't," Henry pointed out. "I saw him and his friends this morning with some."

"OK, if you think you can find something to trade." She wiped her eyes again and tried to smile. "I'd better go check on Vi and Benny."

* * *

Henry flicked on one of their precious flashlights as he entered the garage. The thick blackness receded as he let the beam play over the contents. It had taken him all of ten seconds to figure out that Seth wasn't going to care about jewelry. Maybe if he could get it somewhere where people still valued precious metals and stones—was there such a place anymore? It was impossible to know. He wished he'd paid more attention to geography and current events in school. A part of him even missed school…

He shook his head to refocus. What was something that Seth would want? His eyes fell on the bicycles, but he discarded that idea quickly. As much as those might appeal to the gang, the bikes were the Aldens' only way out if they needed it. (A tiny thought in the back of his mind reminded him that that day was probably a lot closer than he suspected.) No, those were far too precious to barter for a bit of food. And he didn't have a scooter or skateboard or anything like that.

His eyes fell on the workbench, covered in various tools… but without electricity, Dad's power tools weren't useful. Yeah, people had generators here and there, but they needed fuel to run. The thought slammed into his brain in a flash. Fuel! Didn't Dad have a can, just in case… He picked his way to the one corner of the garage where the car-related things were stored. Sure enough, there was the gas can. _And it was still full._ He hauled it into the entryway and began unlocking the door.

"You found something?" Jess poked her head out of the living room. One lock of brown hair fell into her eyes and was promptly shoved back behind her ears.

"I'm hoping he's got a generator to run," Henry told her.

"Can you tell me another story?" came Benny's voice from out of sight.

Jess held up crossed fingers to Henry and turned back into the living room. "Sure, why don't I tell you one about Thomas the Tank Engine? Or maybe Vi can do it?" Henry heard just before slipping out the door empty-handed. He'd come back for the can if and when Seth said yes.

* * *

"What do you want, shrimp?" asked Seth. His buddies snickered.

It hadn't taken long to find them, but Henry was beginning to wonder if it was worth it. "I want to trade for food."

His demand was met with derision. "And you think you've got something we actually want?"

"I can give you a can of gasoline," Henry offered.

Seth looked at the friend to his right for a moment, then shrugged. "All right, bring it and Jeff'll have something for you."

Henry ran back to the house before Seth could change his mind. He caught his breath, then rapped on the door.

"Who is it?" came Jess's voice.

"It's me," he replied. "They said yes—I need the gas can."

The deadbolt snapped back into the door with a clunk and Jess yanked it open wide enough to hand the can over. "Good luck," she told him.

* * *

Jess was thankful Vi loved making up stories for Benny. It meant she could take a few minutes to flop onto the couch in the living room, out of sight of her younger siblings, and try to think of what to do if Henry's plan didn't work out. For that matter, even if it did, what would they do next? It wasn't as if the house was full of useful stuff to trade every meal, and even if it was, they'd run out eventually. _We're going to have to leave_ , she realized. She heaved herself back up with a sigh and dug in the end table drawer for a piece of paper and a pencil. Time to make a list.

She liked lists, actually, used to make lists of anything and everything—back when there was school and friends and the other life she was already thinking of as "the past". Unlike those lists, however, this list would be critically important to her life, one of the most important lists she ever made. If they left, they wouldn't be coming back for anything. Whatever they left would be gone forever. So…

She chewed on the end of the pencil, trying to think of what categories to write. Well, they had to wear something. _Clothes_ , she wrote at the top of one column.

They should take at least a few pictures of Mom and Dad, she decided, so they could remember them in a different way, something besides… She forced her mind away from the images left seared on her brain. At least Vi and Benny hadn't had to see them at the very end. As it was, Benny would barely remember them anyway. They definitely needed pictures. She wrote _Personal_ at the top of another column.

The sound of Henry's knock interrupted her thoughts. She left the list on the end table, hurried to the door, and undid the lock to let him in. "What did you get?"

He sighed, closing the door behind him and flipping the lock back into place before he pulled the bag from behind him.

"A loaf of stale bread?" The disappointment tingeing her voice was reflected in his eyes.

"That's all they gave me. Plus they basically ordered me to join their gang—tonight. We'd have to give them everything." He frowned at that.

Jess wrinkled up her face in disgust. "What? No way."

Henry nodded. "Yeah. I think we'd better get out of here, and fast."

"That's what I'd figured," she said. "I started a list of everything we need to take with us."

"We can't take a whole lot," he warned her. "Only what we can stuff in backpacks—and the bike trailer."

"What about Benny?"

"He'll have to ride on the tagalong behind me. My legs are just long enough to handle Dad's bike. You can ride Mom's, right?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I think so? But you'll have to hook up the trailer. I don't remember how they did it." Jess shrugged, a little helplessly.

"I think I remember how. I'll have to use the electric lantern to find everything, though—hopefully there's enough battery left." He walked over to the end table and picked up the piece of paper. "Not a bad start. Add a category for Tools. Anything you can think of that we'll want to have with us later, write it down. We can always cross something off if we decide we can't take it after all."

"OK. Good luck," she told him. She picked up the pencil again and added the new column before starting to list individual items under each column.

* * *

"I need Thomas to take another load to the downstairs railway station," Jess called. Benny's obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine came in handy at times, and she wasn't above making use of it to get the packing done.

"Thomas is here!" Benny shouted as he ran into his bedroom.

"Here, take these clothes downstairs and unload them onto the couch," she told him.

"OK!" His steps were slower this time, and she was unsurprised when half a minute later he came trudging through the doorway. "Thomas is tired," he announced, and promptly sat on the floor.

Jess smiled at him. "Vi! Thomas got too tired to carry any more loads. Would Percy be up for it?"

"Sure," she called back from the other room. "I just finished carrying my things downstairs." She soon appeared at the door and gathered up the few things Jess had set aside in the meantime.

"Thomas can do it," Benny said.

"Oh no, you said Thomas was tired. He needs to rest for a minute and then he can carry another load, OK? They can take turns," Jess suggested.

Benny looked like he was about to object.

"I know something I need your help with. Can you pick one toy to take with us? Only one," she cautioned. "Which one would you want?" She left him to the task and went to find his largest clothes, thankful that her mom had bought several outfits in the next size up for him just the month before. There was no way to know when—or if—she'd ever have a chance to find new clothes that actually fit him when he outgrew his current ones.

Benny went to his toy box, opened it, and began to pull toys out to look at. "I want to take Thomas," he said after a minute, clutching the toy engine in his hand.

 _Of course_ , Jess thought, feeling a bit stupid for not thinking of it right away. It wasn't like it was a new toy that she could have easily forgotten, but in the rush of packing, it had slipped her mind. "Can you take him downstairs and put him with the other things on the couch? That way we can make sure he goes with us."

"OK," he called as he bounded out of the room, his energy clearly restored.

Jess smiled at him and stood with the last bundle of clothes. "Here," she said as she passed it to Vi. "I'm going to go look for blankets and pillows now."

* * *

Henry finished tightening the last nut and laid the wrench on the kitchen floor. "OK, you can start loading the trailer now," he called to Jess. He carefully backed up the bike and trailer into the living room. "I've still got to attach the tagalong to Dad's bike."

"Can you also grab any tools you might want with you? Like whatever you're using to put these together," Jess suggested.

"Sure," he said. He looked over the couch, covered with clothes, blankets, and random things. "I'm not sure all of this can go."

"Maybe not, but we have backpacks too. See?" she said, pointing to Vi, who stepped off the last stair with her backpack in hand. "I figure the stuff that takes a lot of space but is light can go in those, and we can put the heavier, smaller things in the trailer."

"That sounds like a lot to pull. Your legs up to it?" he asked.

"I beat Emma racing up a hill when we spent the day at the park last month. And it was a steep one," she added. "I'm sure I can do it. You have it worse; if Benny gets too tired, you'll have to carry him on your back while you bike. I've got a sheet around here somewhere just for that."

Vi took advantage of the momentary lull in conversation to approach. "Here, I found Mom's sewing kit," she said, handing it to Jess. "She was teaching me how to mend things. Maybe we'll need that."

Vi's lips quivered a little during the last couple sentence, and Jess gathered her in her arms. "I miss her too," she whispered to her younger sister before pushing her shoulders back to look at her face. "I'm sure we'll need it, and you'll do great with it. Now, can you go keep an eye on Benny for me? That will help so much, so I can finish packing this."

"OK."

"Good luck with the tagalong," Jess told Henry.

"Thanks," he said, and headed over to where he'd set the electric lantern.

* * *

"There," Jess declared as she zipped the trailer canvas shut around its bulging load. "That's all we can manage. The backpacks are already stuffed."

"Did you put in any photos?" Henry asked.

His eyes met Jess's, and she gave him a nod. "I pulled the family portraits out of their frames and stuck them in an envelope in between pages of a book, to keep them flat."

"We all have backpacks," Vi said. "Except Benny."

"I thought of that," said Jess. "There's a spare backpack that was in the bottom of the hall closet; it can go in the mounted seat Mom used when he was a baby. He can use it when he gets older."

"I'd better go mount that seat, then," said Henry. "That's the last thing to put together, right?"

"As far as I know," Jess answered. She looked at Vi, who shrugged. "We'll go do one last walk-through, see if there's anything we need that we forgot."

* * *

"What time were they going to come by?" Jess whispered to Henry as they wheeled the bikes up to the front of the garage and checked that everything was ready to go.

Henry checked his watch, grateful the battery was still good. "In ten minutes; we better hurry."

They went back into the house. Vi was waiting with a sleepy Benny. He rubbed his eyes. "What are you doing?"

"There's an emergency trip, and Thomas is needed, Benny," said Vi. "Remember?"

"Jackets on," Jess told them, and helped Benny with his before zipping hers up. "We have to be very quiet as we get into place." She knew the garage doors were not well-insulated; one careless comment and the gang would know what they were up to. She handed Vi her backpack, and they put them on before opening the garage door.

Jess flicked on the one working flashlight and helped Benny find his bicycle seat. "Hold on tight and be ready to pedal hard," she whispered.

Vi found her bike, and Henry went over to the manual release. "When I open it, you two need to pedal as fast as you can," he told the girls. "I'll be on mine and Benny and I will catch up quickly."

The garage door creaked and groaned as it slid up, and Jess was sure the whole neighborhood heard it. She veered left, Vi close behind her, and glanced back once to see Henry and Benny gaining on them… and they weren't alone. Seth and a couple of his buddies were chasing them on—scooters! Jess was never more thankful to see a scooter in her life. While they would keep up pretty close on the initial downhill stretch, uphill was another matter. Vi began to lag a little. "Come on, Vi, you can do it! We've got to get as far as Fenton Street before we slow down."

Jess's legs began to burn; it was a lot harder to pull the trailer behind her than just her own bike, and this bike was taller than she was used to. She forced herself to keep going, going, going, until Henry signaled with his hand and coasted to a stop.

"Benny's about to fall asleep; we'd better switch him to my back. You had some idea on that?" Henry asked.

"Yeah, let's see…" Jess unzipped the trailer a short ways, pulling out a sheet. "Let's see if I can do anything with this." It took a good deal of criss-crossing and wrapping it around both Henry and Benny before she was done, but finally Benny was tightly pressed against Henry's back with it. "The knots seem to be holding, but if you feel anything slipping…"

"I'll stop right away," Henry said. "Can you keep going, Vi?"

"Yeah, I can do it," she said, chin up with a determined look on her face.

Jess smiled. "We'll see if we can't find somewhere to sleep soon. I'm exhausted too."

"All right, let's go," Henry told them, and they each slung their legs back over their bicycle seats. It seemed harder to pedal this time, and Jess had to make herself keep her legs moving in the same pattern, again and again. Vi drifted behind them a little, but not too much. Jess glanced back every so often to check that she was still with them.

She felt ready to drop by the time Henry slowed to a stop. He pointed to a house on their right. "There's a camper there we can sleep in for tonight, if it's not locked," Henry said, "and we can stash the bikes either in the shed or the back yard." The shed was full of garden tools and a lawn mower, so the children wearily pushed their bikes behind the wooden fence and covered them with a tarp that had been covering a grill. Henry went over to the camper, Benny still asleep on his back. He pulled at the door handle—and let out a quiet groan of frustration. "It's locked."

"Maybe there's a window we can get in?" Vi asked.

"Good idea," Jess told her. They started around the camper, pushing and prodding at the windows, till Jess found one that would move up some. "Well, this one opens—but it's pretty small."

Henry joined them, and they looked at the opening critically. "I think Benny might fit," he said after a minute of looking it over.

Undoing the knots that held Benny to Henry's back was a lot harder than tying them in the first place, and Jess was near tears with frustration by the time the last one gave way. Vi patiently worked on the ones on her side, and soon they were rubbing Benny's back and helping him stand up.

"We've got a job for you," said Jess. "It needs someone who can fit in a tiny place, and you're the only one who might be able to do it." She lifted him up to the window. "Do you think you can crawl through there and open the door for us?"

Henry helped support Benny as they sent him feet first through the opening. "Are you good?" he asked Benny.

"Yes," came the answer. "Where's the door?"

"It's on the opposite side a little ways down. We'll go knock on it so you can hear us," Jess told him. The door soon swung open, and Benny was showered with hugs from his brother and sisters.

"There's a bed in here—and it's even got blankets on it," Vi said, exploring the tiny space.

"Everything we need," said Jess.

"No, it isn't. I'm hungry," Benny whined.

"We skipped supper!" Jess exclaimed. "I knew I missed something. I'll be right back." She returned quickly with the loaf of bread. "I'm afraid this is all we have." She opened it and passed out a couple slices to each of them. The bread was really stale and a little dried out, but the children were too hungry to care. They chewed it down quickly, washing it down with the last few swallows from the water bottle they had brought from home.

"Where are my pajamas?" asked Benny.

"We're going to sleep in our clothes tonight," Jess told him. "Isn't this a great adventure?" She helped him take off his shoes and pulled back the covers for him to crawl in the middle. Vi crawled in next to him, and Jess and Henry slipped in on either side of the younger ones. The exhaustion and warm (even somewhat soft) bed worked their magic, and all four were asleep within minutes.


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of birds chirping was the first thing to meet Jess's ears the next morning. Some quiet rustling nearby had her slowly opening her eyes to see … a metal roof? Nothing was familiar, and it took a few seconds for the events of the past day to sink into her head, along with the accompanying sensation of walking a tightrope over a pit. They could never go back, no matter what. And what were they heading to?

Another bit of the rustling, and she slipped out from under the blankets without disturbing Vi. She pulled on her jacket and crept to the door. Her hand opened the latch, after making sure it was unlocked.

The source of the noise became clear when she spotted the open shed door, and Henry poking through the items in the trailer. The camper door clicked closed, and Henry whirled around in a hurry. His body relaxed when he saw Jess. "Morning," he said in a loud whisper.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Seeing what all we have; I didn't have a chance to look yesterday," he admitted. "I just hoped you had gotten everything."

She nodded, crossing her arms in front of herself and rubbing her arms to warm them up. She yawned, and they stood in silence for a few seconds. "Do you think we'll make it?" she whispered finally. "Get somewhere that there's enough food for us all, where we're safe."

"I believe we can," said Henry. "We have to." He went back to rummaging in the trailer.

Jess wandered around the side of the house. She tested the hose at the back and was delighted to find cool water came out. She returned to the camper, where Vi and Benny were exiting, still rubbing their eyes. "Good morning," she greeted them.

"Good morning," replied Vi.

Benny blinked at the sunlight for a few seconds. "I'm hungry," he said.

"The rest of the loaf's in the camper," said Jess. "Let's go eat some now."

"The bread tastes icky," Benny complained.

"I know, but it's all we have," said Jess.

Vi turned to Benny. "Sometimes everything didn't go right for Thomas, but he could still be brave and make the best of things. Can you be like Thomas and eat the bread with us?" She took Benny's hand, and he followed her back into the camper.

Jess split most of the rest of the loaf between them, tucking a few of the inner slices away for later in case they couldn't find more food. She was about to take the crust for herself when Henry handed one of the slices back she had just given him. "I'll take the crust," he said. "You see, Benny, crusts make you stronger, and we have to be very strong."

"Then I need it more—I have the trailer to pull," Jess said.

"It's OK, Jess. I'll take it," Henry said quietly, and Jess handed it to him.

Vi glanced at them briefly, then bent to nibble at her slice.

"I'm thirsty," Benny said after a couple bites.

"Oh!" Jess exclaimed. "There's a water hose attached to the back of the house. We can get a drink there." The others followed her outside to where the hose lay on the patio. Jess turned the faucet on and the water soon gushed out.

"Cup?" Benny asked.

"No, we'll just have to drink from the hose. Like this," Jess said, demonstrating.

They all had long drinks of the cool, clear water in between bites of bread, and Jess thought that water had never tasted so good.

* * *

It took little time to gather all their things back up and hop back on the bikes. They headed away from the residential areas, wanting to avoid any further gangs that might have arisen. Henry wanted to head towards the farmlands. "Farms mean food, and sources of food. If nothing else, we might find somewhere we can work in exchange for food." So they pedaled through business districts, trying to avoid the bodies of those who weren't fortunate enough to have children to bury them. Most of the stores had been broken into, but the merchandise seemed to be largely present, except for the food.

They stopped at one corner store, and Jess ran inside to see if anything had been left. She emerged triumphantly a few minutes later with a few things held high in her hand. "Peanuts! And a package of chips that had fallen underneath a shelf and was missed when they cleaned out the rest. And even a packet of raisins, and a bottle of soda!"

"It's not safe to stay here, though," said Henry, glancing around at the seemingly desolate street. "Let's see if we can find somewhere for lunch."

A park with a walking path made the perfect picnic spot. They biked along the path till they found a clump of tall bushes invisible from the road. The salty peanuts and sweet raisins washed down well with the fizzy drink. It wasn't the most nutritious menu, Jess thought, but it would do. She slipped Benny a few extra chips from her pile with a wink.

Benny's strength flagged during the second half of the day, and Jess resorted to settling him into the infant seat behind her, despite it being a little on the small side. (The straps didn't actually reach - but the rope she'd stashed in the trailer came in handy to make up for that.) "Make sure you don't lean too far one way or the other, OK, Benny? I'm not sure the seat will handle your weight if you do. Just stay in the middle."

"OK," Benny agreed, much relieved to be able to stop pedaling for once.

The backpack that _had_ been in the seat was tied firmly onto the seat on Benny's tagalong with a second piece of rope. "There, I knew that rope would come in handy," Jess said as Henry tied the last knot in place.

"I'm glad Dad taught me all the knots he knew," said Henry. He forced a smile onto his face, banishing the bittersweet memories to the back of his mind. "All right, let's see if we can get to the woods over there by dark."

Jess wondered how Vi was managing to hold up so well—she knew _her_ legs ached, and Vi wasn't used to riding her bike all day any more than Jess was. Her admiration for her younger sister rose as she saw the determination on Vi's face, despite what had to be painfully sore muscles. Vi never complains, she thought, and determined to be a little more like her. She needed to set a better example for Benny than she had in the past. Her mind began to drift to memories of Before, before the plague came. She wrenched her thoughts elsewhere when her eyes began to water.

The sun was low in the sky when Henry suddenly brought his bike to a halt with an exclamation. "Hey, look at that!" he called to the others, already leaping off and propping the bike with the kickstand. He ran through an open warehouse doorway and brought out a thick blue industrial blanket. "They must have used this for padding around large items, to protect them. They'd make the best beds!"

"And how are we going to carry them?" Jess asked with raised eyebrows. "Our bikes are already completely loaded down."

Henry paused for a minute, looking around, then lifted a hand to point towards the woods at the end of the road. "Look, there's a bit of an opening in the trees. We could set them on the handlebars and push the bikes that far."

Vi looked to Jess, who shrugged. "Sounds reasonable to me. Here, Benny, you'll need to be able to walk so I can set your blanket in the seat." She undid the rope holding him in and set him down on the ground again.

The opening turned into a trail, which led to a small clearing. Jess handed Benny and Vi the last couple slices of bread to nibble at while she and Henry prepared the beds. The cool green grass smelled wonderful, and the blankets padded the ground nicely. Jess pulled out a couple large quilts from the trailer and spread them over the four children, one for Henry and Benny, and the other for her and Vi. Their jackets made fine pillows, and they were soon fast asleep.

* * *

Jess wasn't sure what woke her up. Maybe it was the unusual bed underneath her—the industrial blankets were soft, but not nearly as soft as her bed at home. Or maybe it was the night sounds of small animals and the occasional owl. Or maybe the fresh air—she sniffed, and recognized the telltale tang of a thunderstorm approaching. She bit her lip and tried to decide what to do about it. Should they try to get back on the bikes and try to rest in one of the warehouses? The cement floors wouldn't be very comfortable, and she thought she remembered seeing broken glass scattered about. She looked up to realize she had been wandering down a little trail off the clearing. The trail widened and opened up in front of her—and she blinked at the sight ahead of her. An old boxcar! That had to be better than nothing, or trying to head back to the warehouses. She walked up to it to be sure. The rails it sat on were in a state of disrepair and clearly hadn't been used in a long time, but it was definitely a boxcar.

She turned and ran back to the others. "Wake up!" she called, shaking the shoulders of each of the others.

Henry yawned and pulled himself to his feet. "What?" he said, blinking his eyes as he forced himself fully awake. Vi rubbed at her eyes, and Benny swayed in place when they tried to stand him up.

"Thunderstorm coming—but I found somewhere for us to stay. Quick, help me get the blankets and bikes ready to go," she urged.

They bundled the blankets back onto the bikes, and pushed and pulled them down the trail (Benny tugged along by Henry's hand) until they stood in front of the boxcar. "Lucky for us there's a stump right in front of the door," Henry said, joining Jess on it as they rolled the door open. "I'll grab the flashlight," he said, when it looked like Jess was going to just jump inside. "We should at least see what's in there first."

She reluctantly agreed, and he flicked on the faint beam, sweeping it around the interior of the boxcar. Satisfied that no wild animals were currently inhabiting it, he clicked the flashlight off and gave it back to Jess, hopping down onto the stump and then to the ground. "There's not enough battery to leave it on any longer," he said. "We'll be in the dark."

"I'm not scared of the dark," Jess told him firmly. "Here, give me the blankets," she said, climbing into the car and turning to face them.

Vi got up on the stump and passed on each item Henry handed up. First the blankets, then Benny (Henry had to help lift him up), the pillows…

"I think the trailer is almost short enough to fit underneath the boxcar," said Henry after a quick glance at it, and he pulled out a couple more things until he could collapse the roof enough to ensure it. Vi helped him back it up enough so that the boxcar protected it from the elements, then they joined Jess inside and slid the door shut just in time for the storm to dump on them.

Jess smoothed out the blankets and felt for the quilts Henry had handed up. "Here, let's try to sleep some more," she said in between thunder booms. She was doubtful of her success in attempting it, but soon the crashing in the heavens dissipated, leaving behind a steady pitter-patter of rain on the roof of the boxcar. She closed her eyes and let the sounds sweep her away.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning Henry woke to the sounds of water dripping off the trees. The boxcar was nearly pitch black inside, with only the tiniest of cracks in a joint near the roof to let in any light. He sat up and started to shove the door open. At the first creak, Jess joined him, and they soon looked out at the clearing. It was lovely in the morning, with birdsong and gentle rays of sunlight on the treetops. The ground was carpeted with lush plants, ferns and flowers that made it feel as if they had stumbled into someone's garden.

They sat side by side at the edge of the opening for several minutes, with Vi and Benny still fast asleep on their pallets. "Why don't we stay here?" Jess whispered. "No one knows we're here, and we're close enough to find food, and there are farms just nearby that we could use for food.

Henry tilted his head in consideration. "We could, at least for now," he whispered back. "Do we have any food left for breakfast?"

"No," Jess replied.

"I'd better head out to see what I can find, then." He started emptying the contents of his backpack onto his blanket, then began the process of separating the tagalong from the main bike.

Jess climbed out of the boxcar and wheeled the trailer out for easier access. She rummaged in it till she found the hand broom and dustpan she had packed. As soon as Vi and Benny woke up, she helped them shake out the blankets and drape them over the trailer.

"I can sweep," Vi told her.

"All right. Benny, why don't we explore and see what we can find over there?" Jess pointed to a small trail on the opposite side of the clearing from where they had come.

Benny squealed with delight when they quickly arrived at the bank of a gently-flowing river. "A river!"

"Yes, which means we have water to drink!" Jess recalled her parents reminding them never to drink water they found in nature, unless they had a filter or had boiled it. She hoped they wouldn't get sick from the river water, but she was out of options; they had to drink something and she didn't have any filters or a way to boil it. "Here, cup your hands and bring them to your mouth, like this," she said, demonstrating. When they had quenched their thirst, they returned to find a clean boxcar. "Vi, there's a river down the trail. You can get a drink there if you want."

She looked over to see Benny grabbing berries from a bush by the trail and stuffing them into his mouth. "Benny!" She raced over and grabbed his wrists. "Never eat berries unless we tell you it's OK. Some of them could make you very very sick!" Her eyes quickly scanned the bush and she sighed with relief. "These are wild blueberries, so they're OK." She left Benny to eating, and dug through her backpack for a clean towel. "Here, we'll have to pick into this; I didn't bring any containers," she told Vi. The two girls settled into picking in earnest, pausing only to help Benny wash his purple-stained hands in the river.

Jess and Vi carried the towel carefully back to the boxcar and laid it in a corner. "Benny's already had his portion, so let's divide these up for the rest of us," Jess said.

"Can I play with Thomas?" Benny asked.

"Sure, let me get him out for you," Jess told him.

While she did so, Vi separated the pile of plump berries into three smaller ones, and the two girls nibbled them while Benny sent the toy train up and down imaginary mountains.

Suddenly a crunch of small twigs sounded in the woods, and the girls froze. Jess quickly tapped Benny's arm and motioned for him to be quiet. They held still for what seemed like an hour, and then a couple bushes parted, and a dog crept through, limping. Its front right paw was held off the ground, and its fur was matted, but it wagged its tail in a very friendly manner, so Jess climbed out of the boxcar. "Poor doggy," she called with a soothing voice. "What happened to your paw?"

The dog limped up to her, and Jess slowly took hold of the leg, watching for any sign of aggression. There was none, however, as the dog merely stood still, other than trying to lick her chin. "Stop it," she said, giggling. She carefully turned the paw slightly to inspect the pads. "Oh, I see—he's got some glass stuck in his paw. Poor thing!" She lifted him into her arms and sat on the stump, turning him sideways to look at the paw better. "Hmm, I think I need the tweezers. Vi, could you hand them to me? There's a pair in the small top pocket of my backpack." She petted his head—having ascertained that he was indeed a he—and noticed his ribs. "I think he's also hungry. Hand me a few berries too? We can pick more for Henry—there were quite a few bushes we never got to."

The dog wolfed down the berries gratefully, wagging his tail even harder. Tweezers in hand, Jess began to grasp the first shard of glass and pull it out. She laid each shard on the stump next to her, vowing to find or create a trash can of some kind soon. When all the shards were out, she made a sound of triumph. "There, all good. I'm going to take him down to the river to let him put his paw in the water for a bit. Don't come down onto the stump till I do something with the glass pieces; I don't want either of you to get your feet or hands cut on them."

Benny and Vi promised to stay put, and Jess carried the dog down to the river. He flinched slightly at the first touch of water on the paw, but relaxed soon after, and stood content in the gently flowing water at the edge, holding the paw up just enough to keep from putting any weight on it. Jess scooped up some water in cupped hands and tried to clean him somewhat. He needed a serious bath—with some doggy shampoo—but she had no idea where to find any, nor a comb to detangle his fur with. She added those items to the growing mental list and headed back to the boxcar, dog in arms.

She lifted him up to Vi. "I don't think he's ready to walk on the paw yet, so he can lie down. Go ahead and feed him the rest of the berries; I'm going to do something with the glass pieces and then we can pick more berries for Henry."

"He's watching us," said Benny. "What's his name?"

"I don't know what his name is," Jess replied.

"He should be called Watch, because he keeps watching us," Benny suggested.

Jess looked to Vi and shrugged.

"I like it," said Vi.

"Watch it is," Jess said. "You're a good boy, aren't you, Watch?" She gave his head one more stroke before getting back down.

She surveyed the clearing. Stumps dotted it here and there, and she started walking to each one, looking at the surfaces. She grinned when she spotted one that had a deep crevice between two portions. "There we go," she said to herself. She picked each piece up with tweezers and laid it gently on her hand, then carried them to the crevice and dropped them in. That'll keep them out of our way, she thought.

She leaned against the open boxcar doorway. "Who wants to help me pick more berries for Henry?"

* * *

Henry pushed the bicycle down the trail to the boxcar, the heavy backpack pulling at his shoulders. He sighed with relief when he could prop the bike on the kickstand next to the boxcar and let the backpack slide off one arm.

"What did you find?" Jess asked. Vi joined her as they gathered around the backpack.

Henry unzipped the pack and began to pull out the few things he had had time to grab. It had taken most of his time at the two houses just dragging the corpses of what had been the elderly inhabitants to the bathtubs and clearing anything potentially useful out of the bathrooms before closing the door on them. If the others went to gather supplies, they would only have the smell to deal with, at least. That was bad enough. He'd had to strip completely before going near them and then scrub himself down with a bucket of water in the backyard when he was done. The odor still filled his nostrils, and he hoped it didn't cling too strongly to him. He forced his mind away from the unpleasant scenes and onto the things he had found.

"Here," he said, "these look like they're still pretty good." He handed a couple boxes of crackers to Jess, who was delighted. "And I even found this!" He pulled out a block of cheese which was covered in mold. "I bet if you cut off the outside of it, there might be some inside that's still good. We could have it for lunch."

Jess handed the crackers to Vi and took the block of cheese from Henry.

"Did you find any milk?" Benny asked.

"All the fresh milk has long since spoiled, Benny—but I found a couple cans of condensed milk." He showed the front of the can to Benny. "Jess can mix it with some water in this pitcher." He pulled out a few water bottles, to Jess's clear relief.

"Oh good, we're going to need to drink the river water again, but I would like to find a way to sterilize it first. Mom—" she started, swallowed hard, then continued, "Mom always said you had to sterilize water by boiling, otherwise it would have lots of bacteria in it and it could make us sick."

Henry nodded. "There's pots and all kinds of stuff in the houses. I, uh, cleaned up a couple so you could go in and get whatever you wanted."

Jess met his eyes and nodded. She remembered digging the hole in the backyard for their parents, all too well. Next door was worse—the children hadn't thought to deal with them for two days. She stood up, clutching the cheese. "I'll see what's left of this cheese block. You must be hungry."

Henry thought about it. He had been initially, but the morning's experiences had turned off his appetite for a while. Now that he was back in fresh air, with the beauty of the woods around him and his siblings at his side… "I think so." He rose to join her and whispered in her ear as he passed by, "Don't open the bathroom doors."

A brief nod told him that she understood.

* * *

There was indeed a remnant of cheese that was still good, once Jess had carved off a thick slab all around it. The moldy scraps Benny tossed to Watch. "He likes them," Benny proclaimed.

"He's going to get sick eating that," Jess warned him.

"Ah, let him," Henry told her. "Chances are he's eaten worse in the past few weeks—and we can't afford to give him that much of our food. He's got to be able to handle scraps and other things we can't eat, unless we find a ton of dog food in any of the houses."

A lunch of crackers and cheese with condensed milk to drink was not the tastiest meal the children had ever eaten, but they had grown considerably less picky over recent weeks, and devoured it with relish. Henry savored his blueberries as a dessert. When the last morsel had been eaten (excepting the second box of crackers, which Jess set in one corner of the boxcar for later, "just in case"), Henry spoke. "I think we should divide and conquer this afternoon."

"What does that mean?" asked Benny.

"It means we'll split up and do two things at once so we get more done," Henry explained. "I think there are some farms beyond the railyard that our boxcar came from, and I want to go see if there's anything that can be salvaged from there. Food, animals, whatever. But we need more basic supplies, and there's quite a bit in the first two houses I went to. The neighborhood just beyond the warehouses was all senior citizens, and I don't think any children have been to any of those houses. If we get there first, we'll be able to get a lot of the things we need to survive."

"So you want us to go there," Jess said.

"Yeah. It would probably be best if Vi and Benny stayed in the yard while you went in," he told her. He'd opened a window or two but the stench would not dissipate fully from that alone.

"Vi can pack our backpacks with whatever we find," Jess said.

"And play with Benny," Vi said.

"Yes, of course." Jess smiled at her.

"Sounds like a plan. You should probably take the trailer, though—then I won't have to detach it, and you can take more with you," Henry suggested.

Jess looked at him and sighed. "You're right. We'll need to unload it, then."

Henry grinned. "Have fun with that. I'm heading off; I'll meet you all back here in a few hours," he said, flipping the bike's kickstand back up and walking it down the trail.

Jess scrubbed the knife clean in the river and stored it again. "Come on, Watch, you can't stay in here." She lifted the dog down to set him on the ground, but was interrupted.

"The ground is too hard for him," Benny protested. "Here, I'll get him some leaves." He ran over to a pile under one tree and scooped up a large bunch, some dripping a little with the water from the previous night's downpour.

Jess and Vi exchanged smiles. "He'll be fine, Benny; the moss and ferns over here make it really comfortable," Jess said, laying the dog on the softest patch she could spot. "Stay," she commanded, when Watch looked like he would try to get up and follow.

"Stay, Watch. You have to stay," Benny said.

"Good dog," Vi told Watch, petting his head.

The contents of the trailer and the girls' backpacks were soon emptied onto the blankets in the car. "OK, we need to find something to store stuff in, because we won't be able to sleep tonight for all of this," Jess said, gesturing to the assortment of clothing, tools, and other odd things littering the floor of the car.

"Jess," Vi said suddenly, "I just noticed something."

"What is it?" Jess asked, hurrying over to where Vi was pointing. She followed Vi's finger to spot chunks of wood nailed to the door on opposite sides of the boxcar. "Oooh," she breathed with excitement. "That would make a great shelf—we just need to find a board to put over it." She scrambled down and rummaged in the trailer for the measuring tape. "Ah-ha, I knew this would come in handy," she proclaimed. Vi helped her hold it across the car. "Nine feet two inches," she read.

"Can we find a board that length?" Vi asked.

"As long as it's at least that long, Henry can cut it down to the right size, if we can find a saw." Jess stuffed the measuring tape in her pocket and slung her empty backpack on her shoulders. "Ready to go?" she asked Vi and Benny.

"Yes," they chorused.

"We're going to walk till we get out of the woods. Then we'll get on the bikes. You can ride in the trailer on the way there, Benny, but you'll have to sit in the carrier on the way back."

"OK," he said. "What are we going to get?"

"Well," began Jess, "I want to find cans of food. And maybe a board we can use for a shelf. And if we're lucky, we'll find a way to cook food." It had been _so_ long since they had had a hot meal…

"Dishes!" said Vi. "More towels, pillows, blankets…"

"Maybe they'll have toys!" said Benny.

"Well, these were all old people, but they might have had some things in their houses for their grandchildren. We'll have to see…"


	4. Chapter 4

Vi leaned her bike against the fence as Jess propped hers up and helped Benny out of the trailer. "Stay out here, and I'll bring things out for you and Vi to pack, OK?" Jess told him. "Vi, there's a shed over there, see if you can get into it, see if there's anything useful?" she called.

Henry had helpfully left the doors unlocked, and Jess twisted the knob and walked inside. Her nose wrinkled immediately; the open windows helped, but the smell was terrible. What he must have dealt with, Jess thought with a pang of sympathy. If he did it, she could too, and she forced herself to breathe normally and ignore the odor. First priority was more food; she made a beeline for the kitchen.

She hauled the trashcan over and took a deep breath before opening the fridge. Most of the food in there would have spoiled quickly, and she was unsurprised to see a veritable display of colors that should never have been on whatever foods they used to be. Containers of leftovers were dumped in the trash instantly, along with any cartons of milk. What she was after… she grinned as she found open jars of pickles, olives, and jam. She set each one on the counter, grabbed the two cans of Diet Coke, and pulled out the ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard. She eyed the array of jars and cans, then started poking around until she found a laundry basket. She loaded it down with the bounty from the fridge and carried it to the door, her arms straining at the weight.

"Oof," she said, setting it down outside. "There, see if you can get that in the trailer. Carry them carefully!" she warned, watching Benny enthusiastically lift one jar. "Two hands on each jar, Benny, so it doesn't get dropped. We need all of this food."

Jess went back inside to see if there was anything else, and started pulling open various cupboard doors. She let out a delighted "Yes!" when she stumbled across more boxes of crackers, and even a loaf of stale bread. Watch would have something to eat too. She opened what looked like a closet door to find shelves of cans and dried goods, and she couldn't stop grinning. There was enough there for them to eat for a couple weeks! She deposited a load of bread and crackers outside and quickly returned to the pantry before gathering as many cans into her arms as she could. "Beans! Canned pears! We're going to eat well this week," she called to Benny and Vi who were loading the last of the condiments into the trailer.

"If we put too much more in, I don't think the trailer will be able to carry it all," Vi said speculatively, her head tilted as she inspected the effect of the load on the wheels.

"We'll have to come back for the rest several times. There's so much in there," Jess told her.

"What else could we put in there?"

"I didn't look for something to cook with. It would have to be cast iron, I think. That's the best kind to use straight over a fire, Mom used to say." Jess looked down at her hands. "We were going to go camping this August, she said. Now that Benny's four, he was old enough to do it with us." She glanced up at Vi and gave her a wry smile. "I guess we're getting to go camping after all, huh?"

Vi attempted a smile back. "Oh, I was going to tell you, the shed doesn't have anything useful that I saw."

"That's OK," Jess said, "Henry might find something to do with the stuff in there later. I need to find a pot first, and some dishes to eat off. Be right back." She went back inside, hardly noticing the smell anymore. Within a few minutes she had located a set of lightweight plates. She opened the silverware drawer, at first intending to just grab a handful of the silverware, and then realized she had nothing to put them in. She started to look for a container, and then a thought suddenly hit her and she shook her head at herself before lifting the entire tray out of the drawer.

"Here we go," she told Vi as she handed over the dishes. "I'll see if I can't find bowls and cups and paper napkins now."

Successful on all three accounts, she rummaged for a cast iron pot in vain. "Let's try next door," she told the other two. She closed the windows before leaving; as bad as the smell would be the next time, she didn't want animals getting in and ruining the food she hadn't managed to grab.

Jess was relieved to find a cast iron pot there, and grabbed a few plastic storage containers to put leftovers in. "Hmm, a spoon or two to stir with… I think that's everything for now," she said, giving Vi the pot and spoons.

"What about a board?" Vi asked.

"Do they have toys?" Benny piped up.

Jess smiled. "I'll have to look for toys this time. I haven't seen a board," she said to Vi, "but I'll look in the garage. This one had their cars outside, so maybe their garage is full of stuff."

Was it ever! Jess blinked at the sheer number of articles in it, once she found a flashlight to see. Machines of various sorts (she thought she recognized some from what Dad used to teach Henry woodworking with), but best of all, there were a couple long boards along one wall! She had to shove the garage door up some in order to slide the board outside. Once in front of the house with it, she realized her predicament: just how were they to get a long board home?

Vi stared at it as well. "Tie it on?" she suggested with hesitancy.

Jess shrugged. "Worth a try." She managed to tie it to the trailer but finally gave up on tying it to her bike. "I'll hold the one end. This is going to be a tricky trip back. Better see if I can't get a saw too."

"Did you find the toys?" Benny asked.

"Oh, right! I was going to look. We can afford a few minutes for that," she said. The saw was fortunately easy to find, and she handed that to Vi before beginning a search for toys. The silent walls inside held photos of children, so Jess had some hope of some sort of toy, but all she could find at first were video games, forever useless now. And then she pulled out a small bin from beside a chair to find a wooden toy train set. "Oh, Benny is going to _love_ this," she breathed, clutching the bin to herself. Some of the trains inside looked like they were hand-carved; she wondered if they had been made in the attached garage.

"Don't peek!" she told Benny as she loaded it into the trailer and shuffled items to make it fit well. "It's a surprise for you. Now, ready to go?" She lifted him onto the toddler seat. "Remember, don't lean either direction; stay right in the middle."

She lifted the one end of the board and got on the bike. "We might have to stop a few times for me to set this down - it's really heavy!" They started pedaling, and she thought of how pleased Henry would be when he saw everything they had found.

* * *

Henry slowed his bike down and stood astride for a moment. His eye scanned the farm in front of him. As far as he could tell, the animals seemed to be behaving normally, which meant someone had to be taking care of them. The farmhouse seemed fairly deserted, though, and he frowned, until he spotted a horse tied to a fence a ways down. Where there was a horse tied, there had to be a rider. Hopefully they were friendly.

He pedaled until he drew close to the horse, then got off the bike to lean it against the fence and watch for the person who had to have come with it. He was surprised to see an older woman walking out of the nearby small barn. She carried a sack in one hand and some sort of tool in the other, and seemed to be heading to one of the other fences. She turned slightly, and Henry could tell when she caught sight of him, because she suddenly stopped still. She slowly laid the things in her hand down and walked towards him. Why, she was nearly as old as his grandmother, he thought. Her hair was silver, and her face was kind-looking. That last observation made Henry feel a lot better.

She stopped on the other side of the fence from him. "What are you doing out here all by yourself, young man?" she asked in a curious tone.

"I wondered if there was work I could do in trade for food, ma'am," Henry replied, careful to observe all the courtesies he could remember.

She beamed at that. "Bless your heart, yes. There's more than I can do myself, and this isn't even my farm. But the plague passed me over, and took all the neighbors with it. Couldn't leave the animals to suffer, you know," she informed him.

Henry smiled. She talked more than his grandma ever did, but it was so nice to hear an adult's voice. "Just show me what to do and I'll do it."

"Come along then," she beckoned, and started walking at a brisk pace. Henry had to duck quickly to get through the fence bars and catch up with her. "Well, the goats need milking. Have you ever milked a goat before?" She didn't wait for his reply before continuing, "No, probably not. Children these days are so cut off from the land, all video games and TV. Though with the electricity gone, I dare say that hobby's out. What did you like to do before the world turned upside down?" she asked.

"My Dad was teaching me woodworking," Henry said.

She stopped in her tracks, and Henry had to stop to keep from running into her. She turned to catch his gaze in hers. "So you like to do things with your hands, eh? Good, very good. What's your name, young man?" She held out a hand.

"Henry Alden, ma'am," he said, clasping her hand for a proper shake.

"It's nice to meet you, Henry. I'm Margaret McAllister, but everyone calls me Peggy." She paused, face tightening a brief moment. When she spoke again, her voice was softer. "Well, they called me that, before. You can call me that, now."

"Yes, Peggy," he answered, and was relieved to see a bit of a smile return to her face.

"Here, let me show you how to do it," she said, leading him into the goat enclosure.

* * *

Henry's hands ached by the time he was done. Who knew milking goats took such strength? But Peggy had reassured him that he would build up the muscles needed, and he held onto that hope as he flexed his hands in an effort to work out the cramps that wanted to start. She'd taken the pails of milk off and added lids to them before taking them back to where her horse was tied. Henry ran to get his bike and follow her to the other farm.

She untied the horse, but turned to face Henry, holding the reins in her hand. "Do you have anyone else to share this with?" she asked him.

Henry would have been cautious about telling anyone about them otherwise, but by this point he'd decided Peggy was safe. "Yes, I have two sisters and a little brother."

"Four of you? And you're the oldest?"

Henry nodded.

"How old are you?" Peggy's eyes were fixed on his face.

"I'm 13 years old," he answered.

"So young," she whispered. At a normal tone of voice, she asked, "I assume you're the one taking care of them, then?"

"Yes. Well, my sister Jess is 12, so we help each other."

"That's good. Family should stick together if possible. My son promised me he would come home from his trip, but that was just before the plague." She turned away from him and rested one pail on the saddle before launching herself up.

Henry thought it looked very difficult to do with a pail of goat milk in each hand, even with lids on them, but he said nothing and climbed on his bike to follow her.

Peggy's house was white clapboard, and looked exactly like what Henry thought a farmhouse should look like. Several steps led up to a wrap-around porch with a bench swing on it. Peggy strode up the steps energetically. "Up until the plague, this was a sort of museum farm, people coming here to see what a farm used to be like a hundred years ago. It was my husband, you see (God rest his soul). He liked the old-fashioned things, never trusted electricity. Came in handy this month," she told Henry. She handed one of the pails of goat milk to Henry, then used her free hand to open the screen door.

"Now, I was tossing most of the milk to the pigs, because it's more than I can use in a week, but there's plenty of rotting things to throw them, so they won't miss it. Let me show you how to separate the cream out and make butter from it, and we'll get some cheese started. Then I'll send you back with some milk, butter, and a spare loaf of homemade bread to eat it with—my wood oven still works well and it's easy to bake more. Does that sound good?"

Henry's mouth watered at the thought of fresh milk and butter. "That would be wonderful. Thank you, Peggy."

* * *

Jess was relieved when they arrived back at the boxcar and she could lay down the board. She lifted Benny down from his seat. "Why don't you pet Watch for a bit? It looks like he's been waiting for you. Or you can play with Thomas. We'll get your new toys out later, when Henry is back." She went back to the trailer and started to untie the board from it. "How long is it?" she asked Vi. "I think you still have the measuring tape."

Vi felt in her pockets and pulled it out. The two of them held the tape to measure. "Looks like 12 feet," Vi said.

"Henry will have to cut it down to size, then," said Jess. "Let's start unloading what we can, even without the shelf in place." The saw went next to the board, with a strongly-worded caution to Benny to stay away from it until Henry could teach him how to be safe with it. The dishes joined the rest of the clutter on their "beds" in the boxcar. Jess picked up one of the condiment bottles speculatively. "I have an idea," she told Vi. She set the bottle back down. "Here, come help me?"

Vi needed no further urging to follow Jess. "Benny, do you want to come down to the river with us?"

"Come, Watch! Good doggy," Benny said.

When they got to the river, Jess crouched in front of Benny to catch his eyes. "This is very, very important. You must never come to the river unless one of us are with you, OK? You could fall in and drown. Do you promise?"

"I promise," said Benny.

"Good. There's a spot there where you can sit and put your feet in the water, if you want. Just take off your socks and shoes first."

Benny's face lit up at that, and he wasted no time stripping his feet of all encumbrances.

"Here," Jess said to Vi as she pointed at one part of the river. "It gets shallow enough there that if we can put a ring of stones around it, we could turn it into a fridge for food."

"Like the stones over there?" Vi asked, gesturing to one portion of the bank that was covered in stones.

"Perfect," Jess said, grinning.

Jess was soon placing the last stone around the shallow pool, and looked at it with satisfaction. "There!" she said. "Now we just have to put all the open things in here. Benny, maybe Thomas can help us carry things down here."

Thomas indeed could, and was given several loads of plastic bottles; at least if he dropped one, Jess reasoned, only the contents would suffer. Soon the opened containers were sitting in the shallow pool, cooling back down. "There!" said Jess, placing the last one in the pool.

"Are we going to eat any of it for supper?" Vi asked.

"Maybe the pickles," answered Jess. "We'll have to see what Henry has found. We've got cans we can open, but if he has anything fresh that will work better…" She shrugged. "Let's go see if there's anything we can do with the rest of the things."

She stacked the boxes of crackers neatly against the boxcar wall, and set the bin of toy trains inside next to them. "There!" said Jess, standing on the stump and admiring the attempt at organization.

"You said 'there' three times," Benny commented.

"I did," Jess said, laughing a little, "and I'm going to say it again. There!" She pointed at Henry, who was getting off his bike.

Henry slipped his backpack off his shoulders. The contents clinked a little as he set it on the ground.

"What did you find?" asked Vi.

Henry grinned as he unzipped it. "Homemade bread—fresh," he added, pulling it out.

"Ooh," the other children chorused.

"And goat butter and goat milk," he continued, pulling out jars with the latter.

"We can have butter and bread with our supper!" Jess exclaimed. "I've got a can of beans that we can divide up, and some pickles and olives, and jam to put on the bread."

"Can we eat now?" Benny asked.

"Not quite yet," Jess told him. "First, I need Henry to get our shelf ready."

"Shelf?"

Henry's eyes lit up at the sight of the saw, and the girls helped hold the board steady as he trimmed it to the right length. Cheers went up as it went into place, and Jess found a cloth to drape over it. Vi began passing Jess the things they had so quickly dumped on the floor that morning. Little by little the floor of the boxcar was decluttered.

"It looks like a home now," said Vi.

"It _is_ a home now," Jess told her, "our new home." She bent down to get the toy bin out. "Now, I promised Benny I'd show him the new toys I found once you were back, Henry." The children gathered around as she took the lid off the bin and lifted out one of the wooden trains.

Benny's eyes got as wide as saucers. "Wow! Lots of Thomases!"

"For you to play with," Jess said. "You just have to be sure to always put them away when you're done, or they'll get ruined, and we can't get any more if that happens. Now, why don't you play with them, and we'll get supper ready?"

Jess got out of the boxcar to find Henry already inspecting the pot she had gotten. "I wanted cast iron, because they're really good for using on fires."

Henry nodded. "Did you get something to put it on?"

"What do you mean?" Jess asked.

"You know, a grate or something. You can't set it directly on the fire, and you can't hold it out from you."

Jess's shoulders slumped. "I knew there was something I was forgetting."

"Never mind, you can look for something tomorrow. If one of the houses has a super thick cooling rack for loaves of bread, that might work," he suggested.

"I guess it's cold beans tonight," she said with a sigh.

"They'll still be delicious."

And they were, Jess decided, eaten out of real bowls with real spoons, along with plates that held sharp-flavored pickles and salty olives and thick slices of hearty bread slathered with creamy butter and sweet berry jam. Even Watch ate well, with stale bread broken into a metal bowl Jess had found, and goat milk poured over top. The children devoured every crumb on their dishes, and Jess tucked the other half of the loaf away in a bag for breakfast. Jess got out the four cups for the meal to pour the goat milk into. She had left the glass sets in the house, figuring they would be easily chipped or broken, and found several mismatched cups instead.

"I want that one!" said Benny, pointing to a pink cup in the shape of a tea cup. It was ringed with roses and showed a lamb drinking from a pool.

Jess smiled. "All right, that can be your cup, Benny." The children drank up the milk in their cups to the last drop, and the remainder of the jar was added to the refrigeration pool.

"Oh, I almost forgot," said Henry, going to his backpack and pulling out another package, "the nice lady at the farm gave me this as well. Some dried beef she wasn't using up quickly enough. I thought we could eat it tomorrow."

"She sounds wonderful; I'm glad you found her," said Jess, and Vi had to agree.

Full bellies made the children sleepy, and Benny needed no encouragement to crawl on his bed. Henry spent the last couple hours of daylight setting up a fire ring with stones he'd found in a rock pile along the trail. "That ought to do, if I remember what Dad taught me. Only stones that weren't in water; the ones that have been could explode when they get hot." He turned to Jess. "How many boxes of matches do we have?"

Jess thought for a minute. "I think I only grabbed the one; I know we had more, but I was trying to throw in everything I could think of."

"I know, it's fine," Henry reassured, "I'm sure a lot of the houses have at least one. Put that on your list to look for when you go tomorrow."

Jess nodded and wrote it down on the notepad she had brought with her. They still needed a cupboard of some kind, but transporting that would need a real cart, not just the trailer. Something to tackle tomorrow, she decided. She yawned. "I'm ready to sleep," she said.

"Me too," said Vi. They quickly climbed into the boxcar, followed by Henry, and soon all four children were fast asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Breakfast the next morning was a hurried affair of bread, butter, and jam, washed down with plenty of milk and a few more handfuls of berries for dessert. "Our fridge works really well," remarked Vi, "the milk's nice and cold."

"We should try to get some sort of waterproof box that we can put in our fridge; then we could put in things that aren't waterproof, like plastic containers of food," said Jess. "Otherwise we'll have to store everything in jars."

The children polished off the food and cleaned up quickly. Benny and Vi handed the dishes to Jess, who washed them in the stream. "You need a tub," said Vi.

"What a great idea!" exclaimed Jess. "A plastic tub — one of the houses _must_ have one somewhere. Remind me to write that down too?"

"I'm off to the farm again," said Henry. "I'm sure Peggy can use more help. I'll try to be back for lunch. Hopefully you can find a grate of some kind?"

"That's the first thing on my list," said Jess. "We can always eat the beef by itself, but I could boil it into a stew if we had a way to cook it."

The trip to the houses was quicker than before; Jess noted that her legs were less sore than they had been the day before. If they kept this up, they would be able to bike for ages. They'd have to find a little kids' bike for Benny, though, she thought. He was already too large for the carrier he was sitting in, and only fit because she didn't try to strap him in.

Vi and Benny played with Thomas while Jess rummaged in the house again. A plastic tub was easy, but she had to look through both houses till she found a thick metal drying rack for bread loaves that looked large enough to lay over a fire. She was grateful that she didn't have to go into any of the other houses on the street to find it. As terrible as the smell was, what Henry had had to deal with would have been far worse. She was glad he was able to spend more time at the farm and wouldn't need to clear out any more houses any time soon.

She picked up a few more odds and ends that she had either written down or thought of on the spot—a ladle, a vegetable peeler, a few kitchen knives and a cutting board, a bowl to mix food in, some small bottles and jars of spices and salt, a box of saltines, a couple boxes of matches, a couple hot pads, an empty canister that looked like it would seal watertight, a few candles… She was handing the candles to Vi when Benny said, "I need bigger wheels, so I can be Thomas." And with that he pretended to chug forwards.

Jess stopped for a moment. "Bigger wheels," she murmured to himself. "Actually, let's see… I'll be right back." She went into the garage and gingerly felt her way along the path to where she could shove the garage door up. "Let's look in here, Benny." All three of them came to the opening and started to look at the things inside.

"Be careful, Benny," Vi warned. "Some of these tools are very sharp and will hurt a lot if you touch them in the wrong place."

It was only a few minutes when Benny shouted, "My wheels!"

"Oh, it's a toy wagon!" Vi exclaimed. "A bigger one, too." She helped Benny free it from the corner it was tucked into.

Jess's mind started working overtime when she saw it. "I think I saw something inside… do you still have the tape measure, Vi?" Vi did, so Jess took it with her inside the house. There was a little plastic storage chest three drawers high sitting outside one of the bathrooms, which had a lot of things in it Jess thought would be useful in a first aid kit. But more importantly, it was the perfect size to fit in the wagon.

Jess went back outside. "Benny, why don't you drive the wagon around in this yard? Up to the sidewalk, but don't cross it," she told him.

"OK!" He was already pretending to pull it as Thomas.

Jess turned to her sister. "Vi, I think I might need some help carrying something. It stinks pretty bad in there, though. Can you handle it?" The smaller girl nodded solemnly and followed Jess inside.

The plastic chest of drawers was as light as Jess had thought, and between her and Vi they were able to carry it down the stairs and outside. "OK, Benny, we need the wagon to come over here," Jess called.

The little boy "chugged" his way to the girls and attempted to imitate a train whistle as he came to a stop. The chest was carefully set in the wagon, and Jess grabbed some extra lengths of rope from the corner of the garage to tie it with. "I'll have to tie it to the trailer; you follow me and warn me if you see it wobbling too much, OK?" she told Vi.

The trip back was far slower, with Jess anxiously looking over her shoulder every few seconds. The only came close to disaster once around a turn, but Vi had biked up next to the wagon in case and reached out to steady it with her hand. "Won't Henry be surprised when he sees what we have?" Jess said with a grin.

The plastic chest was carefully set under the shelf on the left, and Jess re-organized the things inside it and outside. Soon the top drawer held their spare napkins, silverware, dishes, and the spices. "The cans are too heavy to go in," observed Vi.

"Yeah, we'll have to get a wood shelf thing for the cans," Jess said. "Maybe Henry can build one, if we get the boards and tools." She got the drying-rack-turned-grate out of the trailer and laid it across the stones Henry had set up the previous night. "There, that looks like it should work."

Vi had already gone to get the cast iron pot and carried it over to Jess with only a little difficulty. "This pot's heavy!"

Jess nodded, taking it from her and setting it on the grate to test. "We're not going to be able to lift it off the grate with anything in it, I don't think. Maybe Henry can, we'll see."

"Maybe Henry can do what?" asked the boy in question as he walked over to the girls.

"Choo-choo!" Benny called, pulling the wagon behind him and running by Henry.

"I see you have a train behind you, Benny!" Henry said.

"He found it in one of the garages," Vi told him.

"We were talking about lifting the pot off the grate with anything in it," Jess answered Henry's question. "If there's water or soup, I think it will be too heavy."

"Oh, that reminds me!" exclaimed Henry. He went over to where he had left his backpack and started pulling out his new treasures. "Besides milking the goats again— I helped weed Peggy's garden. She gave me some vegetables as a thank-you."

"Carrots!" Jess shouted with delight.

"Turnips!" That was Vi.

"I'm looking forward to the onions, myself," said Henry. "I thought you might find a use for them."

"Will we ever!" Jess grinned at Vi.

"I'm hungry," Benny said, having abandoned his "train".

"So am I, but it will take a little bit to get ready. Maybe you can help Henry find the right sticks to use in the fire?" Jess suggested.

The two girls pared and cut up chunks of some of the vegetables; Jess helped Vi remember how to hold the knife safely, since she hadn't had as much experience using them. By this point, Henry had a nice fire going, and Jess took some of the butter and started it heating in the pot. The vegetables soon went in, and when they were nearly soft, Jess scooped them out and into the mixing bowl. She dumped a can of white beans into it and added some seasonings. "Mom made something like this once," she told Vi. "I'm probably not making it anything like hers, but hopefully it will be good. I'll taste-test it like she used to." A few nibbles and extra dashes of salt or one of the herbs Jess remembered her mother using often, and she decided it was done.

"You should write down what you do," said Vi. "Then you can do it again."

"Like recipes?" Jess asked. The thought hadn't occurred to her before. "Lunchtime!" she called to the boys, who had wandered down to the stream. She didn't have to call twice; the children filled their dishes with the makeshift salad and scraped the bowl clean. Crunchy crackers spread with smooth goat cheese made a delicious addition. The loaf of stale bread was still making good meals for Watch, soaked in goat milk. "We have so much of it that it won't matter," she told the others.

"You're a good cook, Jess," Henry said as he licked his lips after the last mouthful.

"Thanks," said Jess. "I'm glad Mom taught me so much, you know?" They shared a wistful smile before Jess presented her hidden treasure to the others—a bag of M&Ms she had found in a drawer.

* * *

"Look at me! I can swim!" Benny called as he made motions with his arms in the water.

Jess hid a smile at observing his feet still firmly planted to the bottom of the pool. They had spent the afternoon stacking large stones in the stream into a wall, and then gathering large branches and other brush to lay against the wall every which way till the water was successfully dammed up. The result was a lovely pool about three feet deep at the deepest point, with a gentle slope and smooth bottom, and Watch had joined Henry and Benny in splashing around in it. Vi had taken the opportunity to wash everyone's socks while they were wading, draping them over a large bush to dry. Jess privately thought that she and Henry might have to use some of the shower things from the houses, because they had started to really stink. At home they had used damp washcloths for makeshift sponge baths, but that took a lot of rags. Perhaps if they made a private area where one could soap up and then pour the water over oneself to rinse off? And they really needed to find more clothing, because theirs was getting really dirty…

"Mmm, the stew smells almost ready," Vi said, stirring it carefully.

Jess left those thoughts behind and went over to check. The stew smelled absolutely delicious, especially after their hard work that afternoon. There were delicious chunks of vegetables in it, and the dried beef, crumbled into small bits, had released lots of flavor and created a nice broth. She picked up the little bell she had run across that morning and rang it. Both boys quickly made their way to the pool's edge and waded out.

Jess ladled up full bowls of stew, and the children all fell to the meal as soon as it was cool enough. Jess wished for more bread to dip in the broth, but the saltines were perfect for adding to the soup. "I think we're going to have to store some of the stew for leftovers," Jess said, looking at the quantity left in the pot.

"We can pour it in the jar that had the goat milk in it? It has a lid and water won't get in," Vi pointed out.

The idea of pouring it was a bit optimistic; Jess's prediction about the weight of the pot with liquid in it proved true, and they carefully ladled the stew into the jar once it had cooled somewhat. When the dishwashing was done, Jess turned to basic housekeeping. "Let's get all our beds and shake off the leaves and sweep the floor again. We're tracking leaves in every time we climb in the boxcar," she pointed out.

"Why don't we sleep at one of the houses?" Benny asked.

Jess exchanged a glance with Henry. "It doesn't smell nice in those houses, Benny," she explained, "and if someone else comes along, they could take everything we have. We're safer here."

The last remaining daylight hours were spent most pleasantly. Jess made more lists of items to acquire, Henry took measurements of different parts of their area for future ideas he wouldn't tell them about, Vi tried braiding some reeds to decorate the outside of the boxcar with, and Benny tossed sticks for Watch to fetch.

"I almost forgot," said Henry as they crawled into their beds for the night, "Peggy asked if I could bring you tomorrow. She says there's cherries that need picking, and she can feed us all lunch if we're able to help."

"Sounds good!" Jess replied. She let out a yawn and closed her eyes. Who knew that making a swimming pool was such hard work?

* * *

After a quick breakfast of crackers, goat cheese, berries, and milk (they really needed more bread, Jess decided), Henry reattached the tagalong and the four children set off for the farm, Watch seated in the trailer. They found Peggy feeding the chickens. "Oh, good, you came! There's far too much work here for one person, and more food than I could ever eat. So lunch is on me. The cherries are falling off the trees, and I've got the equipment to can them for the winter, if you can get them picked."

Henry nodded. "We can do that. Even Benny can help, can't you, Benny?"

"I'm a good helper," Benny proclaimed.

"I'll bet you are," said Peggy, her grin widening at Benny's enthusiasm. "Buckets are over there. Just bring them up to the house when you're done. I think I have a cart somewhere you can use to pull them on—check the shed over there," she said, pointing. "And the goats still need milking, Henry, if you could do that first."

"Sure, Peggy," he said. "Will our dog be a problem?"

Peggy cast a glance over Watch, who sat in front of her calmly. "As long as he doesn't go chasing the livestock, he's fine. I might have a few treats for him somewhere." Watch's ears perked forwards at the word "treat", and the children laughed.

"He must have known that word from his previous family," Jess said.

"All right, I'll be done with this in just a few minutes. As soon as you have a bucket of cherries for me, I'll be ready for them," Peggy told the children.

The girls had sensibly braided their hair in tight French braids that morning, Jess thankful she had remembered to pack their combs, and they were soon climbing in the trees and dropping cherries into small baskets that Benny dumped into the bigger buckets. Bucket after bucket went to the kitchen, and soon Peggy had Jess helping pit some of them and prepare them for drying in the sun. "I only have the equipment for so many jars of cherries, but I've got plenty of pans and cheesecloth to dry with, and they'll keep well. They'll make good fruit soup in winter," Peggy told her.

Vi was dispatched to the garden near lunchtime with instructions to find the juiciest, reddest tomato and the biggest cucumber she could spot. Peggy whisked some of the goat cheese in a pan with a few other ingredients to make an alfredo sauce and put on a pot of water to boil pasta in. Jess sliced thick, juicy slices of tomato onto a plate and mixed fine shavings of onion with thin slices of cucumber and a few drops of vinegar with fresh herbs sprinkled over top to create a summer salad.

"Mmmmm," was all that was said as the hungry workers devoured the meal. Nothing had ever tasted so good. Watch chewed on an old bone he'd found somewhere.

"What do you need us to do this afternoon?" asked Henry.

"There's more work on the cherries to do today. Tomorrow, the green beans, if you can come back?" Peggy asked.

The children decided that yes, they definitely could. They threw themselves into the work and were rewarded at the end of the day as Peggy handed them another loaf of bread. "I baked this while we ate lunch; figured you could use another. And I daresay you can use some eggs," she said, giving Vi a carton of them. "And this is a treat for you when you get home," she told Jess, handing her a pan of something that smelled delicious. Jess couldn't see what it was, as it had a hard plastic cover over it. "Open it when you get home," Peggy admonished, "not before!"

"Thank you very much," Jess told her. "We will." She put the tray in the trailer next to Watch, who sniffed it longingly. Jess laughed. "I'd better put some heavy things on top of it so Watch doesn't eat it before we can!" Another couple jars of goat milk, along with a new tub of goat butter, were placed in a wooden box with the eggs and rested on top of the pan.

"Now you can't eat it, Watch," Benny said. "It's for us, not for you."

Henry had the fire going as quick as they got there, and the leftover stew was hauled out of the fridge and reheated in the pot. "I think it tastes better today," said Henry, dipping the end of his thickly-buttered bread in the broth.

The pan lid was removed to reveal a cherry dessert, with dumplings over top of the cherries. "Ooooooh," came the collective sound as the four children saw the dessert.

"I like Peggy," Benny declared, licking cherry juice off his spoon. The others unanimously agreed.

The children splashed in the pool for a bit before Vi crawled out. Jess soon joined her. "I wish we had some books," Vi said. "I miss reading."

"Maybe if we have time to go back to one of the houses this week, I can look for a book. I didn't see any that you would like, but I wasn't really looking," Jess told her. "What we need is clothes; I only packed two sets for each of us, besides what we had on, but we've gotten them all dirty, and we haven't had time or the soap to wash them. We'll have to pull on dirty clothes when we're done swimming."

Vi wrinkled her nose. "You do kind of stink," she teased with a little grin.

"At least we have the pool," said Jess. "Come on, let's swim a little longer."

The dry clothes might have been dirty, but they felt good as the air began to cool, and the children settled into bed happily.


	6. Chapter 6

The children settled into something of a routine. Most of the days they spent at the farm, picking, canning, drying, caring for the animals, and any number of odd jobs that Peggy needed done. Lunch was always provided them on those days, and usually a treat for them to take home for supper and even breakfast the next morning. One day here and there Benny would go with Henry to the farm and help Peggy while Henry milked the goats, and the girls would head to the houses to find more treasures. With the use of the wagon, they managed to bring the lumber and sandpiper needed for Henry to build a shelving unit in the evenings, and soon the pantry end of the boxcar held neat rows of cans. Jess had grabbed whatever clothing she could find in the houses, and while they looked a little funny (the sight of Henry tightening his belt and rolling up the pant legs to wear pants designed for a grown man was a bit comical), they were warm and clean. Many an evening found them enjoying their pool, and Jess even found a copy of a book of animal stories for Vi to read when she had a minute—and an interesting storybook for herself.

One evening, Jess announced to all, "It's time we had our hair trimmed. I found a pair of hair trimming scissors on our last trip to the houses. Benny's, in particular, is getting into his eyes."

"Will it hurt?" Benny asked.

"No, it doesn't hurt to cut your hair," Jess reassured him, smiling. "Mom used to cut it before. Here, stand in front of me, and I'll give it a quick trim. I don't need to take off that much, just so you can see without any hair in the way."

So Jess trimmed Benny's, and then Vi's. "Don't cut it short, though," said Vi.

"Wouldn't it be easier to take care of?" Jess asked.

"No-o, then you have to keep it out of your face. It combs out easily enough. At least leave it as long as my shoulders," she said.

Henry's was a quick trim, and then Jess handed the scissors to Vi, who carefully snipped an even line across the back. "There, that looks better," Jess proclaimed. She set the scissors in the correct drawer and pulled out her book to do a little more reading by the fire before they had to turn in.

A few minutes went by, and her reading was interrupted by Benny's voice. "There, I trimmed Watch's hair too," he announced.

"Oh no, Benny, what did you do?" asked Jess with a groan. When she caught sight of Watch, she began to laugh. Most of the hair on one side was cropped short, but unevenly, so long tufts sprouted here and there. It was so ridiculous that she laughed and laughed until tears came to her eyes. Vi laughed too, until she was really crying, and couldn't stop.

Jess felt Vi's forehead. "Her head feels really warm; she must have a fever!" she said to Henry, eyes wide with worry.

They lifted Vi into bed and covered her with warm blankets, and gave her a tablet of ibuprofen. Henry and Jess sat up to watch her, but that night she began to shake. "I think we had better take her to Peggy's," Henry said. "Peggy would know what to do."

Jess was grateful that Vi was still small for her age, as they carried her to the trailer and curled her body up to fit in it, blankets tucked all around her. They packed a change of clothes in their backpack and tossed in a small handful of things they thought they might need. "Benny, wake up," Jess called, shaking him gently. "Vi is very sick, and we have to go to Peggy's house so she can take care of her." Benny sleepily climbed on the bike. "You can't ride in the carrier; you're getting too big. Besides, Watch will have to sit there," Jess told him.

Watch seemed to understand the importance of staying still, and he stood motionless in the seat as the children began to bike the path by moonlight. "I'm tired," complained Benny with a yawn.

"I know, Benny, but we have to get there now. You're a big enough boy now to ride the bike," Henry said.

Peggy's house was dark, but when Henry ran up the steps and pounded on the door, Peggy soon answered it, holding a candle. "Henry? Whatever is the matter?"

"My sister Vi is sick, and she can't stop shaking. Can you help?" Henry pleaded.

"Of course, of course; bring her inside. I'll go make up a pallet for her on the floor in the kitchen here. Then start the stove fire while I look at her," Peggy told him.

For the rest of the night and the next day, Peggy gave Vi medicine and showed Jessie how to use hot and cold water to treat the fever. "This is how my grandmother used to do it; they called them fomentations. Works wonders, as well as most of the so-called miracle drugs they discovered this century. And without the side effects too. The medicines are still good now but eventually they'll quit working, so you'll need to learn how to do this."

Benny followed Henry around that day, as he cared for the animals and garden. After the first day, Vi's fever broke, but she was very weak for many days, and Jess had to go get all of their clothes from the boxcar so they could stay with her until she improved. In the evenings, Peggy taught the children things she had learned as a child—how to darn socks, how to knit… "There's a flock of sheep on one of the other farms," she said. "All I've managed to do for them is to make sure they have access to enough food and water, but it'd be good to see if we can't keep them alive till next spring and shear them. Wool makes excellent clothing."

Jess looked at Henry, a question in her eyes. They would need to discuss their plans, and soon, especially as Vi was regaining strength quickly now.

* * *

The next evening, after the children had cleaned up from supper, Jess caught Henry's eye and went out to the porch swing. He made excuses soon after, following her out and sitting beside her.

"When we came here, it was so Vi would get better. She's almost better now. What then?" asked Jess. "I like Peggy, but… I don't want another grandma." Theirs had lived an hour away by car; Jess knew the chances of her survival were slim to nonexistent, and had accepted that she would never see her again.

Henry thought for a bit. "I feel the same way. I think we should go back to live in the boxcar, but…" he trailed off.

"What is it?"

"When it comes to winter, the boxcar isn't going to be warm enough. We can't put a stove in it, like Peggy has in her house. It's great in the summertime, with our pool and fridge and everything, but in the winter the pool and fridge will be frozen over and we will have a hard time even starting a fire, much less cooking."

Jess sighed. "You're right."

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, listening to the sounds of the peaceful evening. Other than the occasional bleat from the goats carried on the breeze or rustle from the chicken pen nearby, the evening birdsong was all that met their ears. "Maybe we can ask Peggy if we can board like farmhands used to? Over the winter, an exchange of our labor for the room and board."

"I like that," said Jess. "When all the adults died, at first it was really scary, you know? But, I've gotten used to it now—making decisions, taking care of everyone…"

Henry nodded. "Yeah, me too. We've learned to work together, and I like that. I don't want to give all of that up just to have a grownup take care of us again."

"No, we can do this," Jess declared. "We just need a place to live where it's warm. Maybe we could stay at the other farmhouse, the one by the goats."

* * *

Peggy was enthusiastic when they broached the idea with her. "Excellent idea! Of course you could stay there, that farmhouse has been lying empty for over a month now. I took care of the people who lived there, so it's clean, just probably a bit dusty. There's enough bedrooms for all of you, and it has a wood stove as well, thank goodness. The one on the other side of me took theirs out only a few years ago; I told them it was a bad idea, but they thought I was too old-fashioned. Old-fashioned, hmph!" Her loud snort made clear the depth of her feelings towards that decision. "For that matter, you can take over the goats permanently. I'm an old woman, and I'm not getting any younger; what use do I have for two farms? Can't keep up with one," she told them.

"So we can move in tomorrow, then," Henry said.

"Good idea as any. You don't have to tell me outright; I can tell you youngsters are used to taking care of yourselves now."

"It's not that we don't like you…" Jess tried to explain.

Peggy gave her a sympathetic look. "I understand, Jess. So farmhands, eh? I could use four of those, you know. Two bigger, two smaller. Hard workers. I can trade food and knowledge for labor. How does that sound?"

"Perfect," said Henry, smiling, and shook her hand in agreement.

* * *

The next day, Vi stayed up at Peggy's while Henry and Jess and Benny went to the boxcar and back, to retrieve the things they had left that they would want with them. "I'm going to miss this place," Jess said as she folded their blankets up and packed them into the trailer.

"We'll come back," he told her. "Maybe even next month, but for sure next summer. We'll come back and camp here several times, and swim in the pool, and make food over our fire. Every year, we'll do that. It can be our home away from home."

Jess smiled. "Home away from home, I like the sound of that."

They loaded the wagon and trailer with all that they could hold, and even Benny's backpack held as much as they could stuff in it. They were unloading when Jess walked out the front door of the house to see a man walking by the road. "Henry!" she called, and he quickly joined her at the door.

"Let's go talk to him," Henry said. "Good afternoon, sir!" he greeted, walking down the path toward the road.

The man looked startled to see the children. "Are you related to the Millers?"

"Were they the family who owned this farm?" asked Henry. "No, we're not. They died in the plague. I've been milking their goats."

The man was taken aback. "It's rare to find a boy who knows how to milk goats. Were you from another farm in the area?"

"No, Peggy taught me," Henry told him.

The man's face lit up. "She's alive? She survived the plague? I had hoped, but… so many did not."

"Are you her son?" Jess asked, joining Henry. "We're her farmhands. She's teaching us how to farm."

The man smiled wide. "Yes, I'm her son Neil. It's good to meet you. I'm going to go see my mother now." And with that he strode down the road to Peggy's farm, twice as fast as he had come.

Henry and Jess looked at each other and almost unanimously started following him. "Benny, let's walk down to Peggy's," Jess called.

They could not keep up with the man's long legs, so when they arrived they found Neil and Peggy hugging each other again and again. Tears ran down both their faces. "I thought you had died in the plague," said Peggy, and Neil said the same thing back to her.

Then Peggy caught sight of the three children. "Oh, Neil, have you met my farmhands? This is Henry, and Jess, and their little brother Benny. Their sister Vi's been staying with me; she had pneumonia a few weeks ago and is almost recovered."

"Pneumonia? How old is she?"

"She'll be 10 next month," Jess said.

"You used the old remedies, I take it," Neil said.

"Of course, what else would I use?" Peggy retorted.

Neil grinned. "Ah, Mother, it's good to hear your voice."

Henry and Jess smiled at each other. "We'd better get back to unpacking," Henry said. "It's nice to meet you, Neil."

They walked back to their new home and resumed carrying in their things. When each item was in its new place, Jess walked outside and surveyed the land around them. Henry walked up beside her. "It doesn't feel like home quite yet," Jess said softly.

"We've had to move a lot. But now we have two homes, the boxcar and here," Henry said.

"And we have each other." Jess smiled at him. "Just like Peggy has Neil now."

"That's the most important thing," he told her, and returned the smile. "We're all together, and we'll make it."

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone's curious, the 1942 edition of The Boxcar Children is just a little smaller than this fic (17,070 words, by my count). The [1924 edition](https://archive.org/details/Theboxcarchildren1924), on the other hand, is approximately 25k.


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